Tuesday, January 25, 2011

(Washington Post) - To be on the Mall around noon Monday was to be confronted with a vast crowd of what appeared to be mostly Catholics assembled for the annual Right to Life March. There were students wearing hats and scarves bearing the name of seemingly every Catholic academy on the Eastern seaboard; crowds of nuns clad in all manner of habits and scores of dark-suited priests and seminarians waving banners and signs.

Closer to the stage one could spot several Orthodox Jews and several who appeared to be evangelical Protestants. Then the crowd parted and up on the stage marched a phalanx of black-cassocked Eastern Orthodox clergy led by Metropolitan Jonah, leader of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). Carrying a bejeweled walking stick and wearing a white crown-shaped miter, the metropolitan and the five bishops lined up beside him provided quite a contrast to the informally dressed crowd.

Talking with these Orthodox afterward, I learned that Jonah had put out word that every bishop who could make it to Washington for the march was expected to be there, along with 80-plus seminarians from two Orthodox seminaries: Saint Tikhon's in Pennsylvania and Saint Vladimir's in New York. The seminarians and their friends stood in a large clump off to the side, waving a large Orthodox Christians for Life banner.

All of the bishops present belonged to the OCA, the second-largest of three major Orthodox bodies in the United States. I was told there was no official there from the much larger Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America nor from the third-largest body: the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America. For shame.

Unlike evangelical Protestants and Catholics, the Orthodox in this country haven't been known for taking to the streets as antiabortion activists. What I did find on the official Greek Orthodox Web site was a statement calling abortion "immoral" and "murder." Likewise, the Antiochans condemn it in this statement on their site, adding that church fathers from apostolic times opposed it as well. They also posted an encouragement to take part in Monday's march. Plus, Frederica Mathewes-Green, one of the best-known antiabortion activists of any denomination, is married to an Antiochan Orthodox priest.

So, why weren't higher-ups from other Orthodox bodies out there braving the 25-degree weather Monday? It might have to do with Metropolitan Jonah making it a priority. Not only did he show up at the march soon after flying back from a visit to Moscow, he also officiated at a Divine Liturgy Monday morning at St. Nicholas Cathedral on Massachusetts Avenue for those involved in the march. Standing in front of the congregation in elaborate gold brocade vestments, he challenged listeners to oppose abortion "whatever the cost." He added, "being a Christian is not about what you do in church on Sunday." One can perform the rituals, he said, "But if you don't live according to the Gospel, that will condemn you to hell."

I asked Jonah why he felt it necessary to call out the troops instead of leaving the heavy lifting to the Catholics and evangelicals.

"The church's responsibility is to be the conscience for the culture," he said. "The Orthodox Church in this country is emerging from being an embassy of foreign cultures to being an authentically American church."

And there's nothing much more American than taking part in street protests.

5 comments:

I suggest that the reason more Orthodox leaders did not participate is because they are pro-life in name only. Even in my own OCA parish opportunities to advocate for the dignity of the unborn are scrupulously avoided. Instead we get criticism of the Manhattan Declaration, support for homosexuality, and criticism of a male-only clergy. On those rare, and I do mean rare, occasions when the clergy deign to note the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, it always comes with a rebuke to pro-lifers who refuse to be "consistently" pro-life by working against capital punishment. I pray that Metropolitan Jonah is not just a flash in the pan but at times I fear the Orthodox church is going the way of the Episcopalian Church USA.

The OCA parishes near me are very pro-life and vocally so. I've never quite understood the death penalty - abortion connection. Babies didn't shoot anyone or rob any banks. It's like comparing playing cops and robbers to the movie Death Race.

Hey man, take it easy casting "shame" on your Orthodox brothers and sisters.

Just like talking (or blogging) about social justice is a lot easier than actually expending your own energy to help suffering individual, showing up at a "march" or protest of any kind is often an easy substitute for doing the real work that's needed to fix the problem.

I don't know what the "symbolic" value of having a lot of Orthodox at this event is, but I don't think anyone really does. If you think it's good, great, go. But I can understand why some might think that using their limited time and resources in another manner better accomplishes God's work.

I thought about attending a few years ago but when I looked at the speakers I realized it was pretty much a conservative political rally. Forgive me, but I think that relying too much on these guys to bring us the Kingdom through legislation can lead us to a strange kind of idolatry.

A rally is certainly no replacement for the other work we are called to do on this matter, but it does have a place. Tradition is unequivocal on the matter of abortion and we should be equally without equivocation in our prayerful efforts to see an end to what St. John Chrysostom called "worse than murder."

As always, Met. Hilarion was exceedingly direct in his address to the Catholic hierarchs assembled to discuss the Church and the family. It ...

"The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."